Like Gotham City in DC’s mythology,Cyberpunk 2077has a police department that appears horribly ill-equipped to combat the criminal element in Night City. With a handful of brutal gangs running rampantly and conquering districts or streets, it makes sense thatCyberpunk 2077’s Night City Police Department resorts to wielding MaxTacas an elite special forces unit that can swiftly deal with such threats while Trauma Team is exceptional at providing quick medical evacuations. Nonetheless, the NCPD’s desperation has it begging Night City residents to act on its behalf and put themselves in harm’s way.
V is already something of an honorary badge inCyberpunk 2077depending on how many dispatch holos they listen and respond to by going out on patrol and thwarting random acts of crime. The NCPD’s jurisdiction apparently allows players to respond to crime occurring in the Badlands as well, and River Ward behaves as a window into the NCPD on a much more intimate level. Players can’t literally be a Night City badge themselves inCyberpunk 2077—even if they wanted to be—but the framework is already plain to see regarding how its sequel, currently codenamedProject Orion, could turn a career as a police officer or detective into a Lifepath backstory.
How Cyberpunk 2077 Tip-Toes Around an NCPD Lifestyle
Cyberpunk 2077’s V is a mercenarywho is as happy to accept shady fixer contracts as they are to interrupt gangs and cut their hostile affiliates down in the following Scanner Hustles: Assault in Progress, Reported Crime, and Suspected Organized Crime Activity. Unfortunately, actually being a badge isn’t possible.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Streetkid, Nomad, and Corpo Lifepathsrepresent exciting upbringings, but coming so close to experiencing what life is like as a badge and not having that be a possibility seems like a missed opportunity thatProject Orionshould rectify. Most interactions players have with the NCPD inCyberpunk 2077will likely boil down to badges pursuing V if players cause the slightest commotion in public and yet it’s difficult to see players’ ‘Wanted’ meter escalate to more than three stars.
Players can hide from badges quite easily in most circumstances, but choosing not to flee or duck into an alleyway can lead to players soon being enveloped by unrelenting waves of Night City’s finest. No grace is granted for tending to Scanner Hustles, regrettably, and it’d be great ifProject Orionallowed players to hunt criminals with a passion for lawful justice.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Lifepaths Have a Lot of Room to Grow in Project Orion
A Lifepath where the protagonist has dedicated themselves to fighting crime rather than indulging in it would be equally jarring and fascinating due to its rare perspective. In general,Cyberpunk 2077’s Lifepaths don’t amount to a whole lot and don’t need to define players’ actions at all.
It’s fun to have exclusive dialogue options occasionally appear, for instance, but players can make choices or act independently of their selected backstory. Still, one of the neater parts of Lifepaths is how they land V in a particular place duringCyberpunk 2077’s prologueand an NCPD Lifepath would be brilliant if it saw players having a relationship with other badges and perceiving Night City’s crime in a vastly unique way compared to how they might as a Streetkid, Nomad, or Corpo.
Players do explore the NCPD precinct inRiver Ward’s storyline inCyberpunk 2077, which gives them insight into what true horrors dwell in the dark science-fiction RPG’s world.
While random gang activity is chiefly left to vigilantes or other gangs to solve, the NCPD is busy with actual nightmarish ongoings and it would be gripping if an NCPD Lifepath included a cold case that haunts the protagonist. There is endless potential for what an NCPD Lifepath could entail inProject Orionif it does feature one, but only time will tell ifCyberpunk 2077’s sequel is even set in Night City.
